Method and system for cloning enterprise content management systems

ABSTRACT

Cloning enterprise content management systems is described. A first remote procedure call is executed to a source database management system associated with a source enterprise content management system to retrieve a source object type from the source enterprise content management system. A second remote procedure call is executed to a target database management system associated with a target enterprise content management system to create a target object type in the target enterprise content management system, wherein the target object type is based on the source object type. Source metadata tables associated with the source object type are retrieved from the source enterprise content management system. The source metadata tables are stored as target metadata tables in the target enterprise content management system.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, and claims a benefit of priorityunder 35 U.S.C. 120 from, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/926,601filed Jun. 25, 2013, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CLONING ENTERPRISECONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS”, which claims a benefit of priority under 35U.S.C. 119 to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/782,238 filedMar. 14, 2013, entitled “MIGRATION APPLIANCE”, which are hereby fullyincorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

An enterprise content management system provides online access tocontent stored using digital technology, information formerly availableonly on paper, microfilm, or microfiche. An enterprise contentmanagement system generates new metadata about content as the content ischecked in and out. Information about how and when content is used canenable an enterprise content management system to acquire new filtering,routing and search pathways, and retention-rule decisions. An enterprisecontent management system provides access to data about email andinstant messaging, which may be used in business decisions. The audittrail generated by an enterprise content management system enhancesdocument security, and provides metrics to help measure productivity andidentify efficiency.

An enterprise content management system provides integrated solutionsfor multiple departments and systems, as many documents may crossmultiple departments and affect multiple processes. For example,imaging, document management, and workflow can be combined in a customerservice department to enable customer service agents to better resolvecustomer inquiries. Likewise, an accounting department may accesssupplier invoices from an electronic resource management system, accesspurchase orders from an imaging system, and access contracts from adocument management system as part of an approval workflow. Similarly,an organization may present information via the World Wide Web, whichrequires managing web content.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Advantages of the subject matter claimed will become apparent to thoseskilled in the art upon reading this description in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals have been usedto designate like elements, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example hardware device inwhich the subject matter may be implemented;

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an example system for cloningenterprise content management systems, under an embodiment; and

FIG. 3 is a flowchart that illustrates a method of cloning enterprisecontent management systems, under an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

An organization may need to clone an existing enterprise content systemto a create a new or updated enterprise content management system, suchas when moving the enterprise content management system from an on-sitesystem to on-demand system stored in cloud storage. Cloning anenterprise content management system requires the cloning of thesystem's object type and metadata tables. In the prior art, cloningtools are inefficient because they are designed to clone a sourceenvironment that could be based on any of multiple database platforms,such that the clone is implemented in a target environment based on anyof multiple database platforms, resulting in a permutation for everypossible combination of database platforms. Furthermore, these prior artcloning tools use an inefficient application program interface to cloneenvironments, which involves the high costs of acquiring sessions toindirectly interact with a database that is several layers below theapplication program interface, thereby cloning environments at a ratethat may require weeks to complete the cloning process.

Embodiments herein enable cloning of enterprise content managementsystems. A first remote procedure call is executed to a source databasemanagement system associated with a source enterprise content managementsystem to retrieve a source object type from the source enterprisecontent management system. In one embodiment, a cloning tool executesJava® code to retrieve the dcm_doc object type from a source Oracle®database used by a source Documentum® system. A second remote procedurecall is executed to a target database management system associated witha target enterprise content management system to create a target objecttype in the target enterprise content management system, wherein thetarget object type is based on the source object type. For example, thecloning tool executes SQL commands to store the dcm_doc object type to atarget Oracle® database to be used by a target Documentum® system.Source metadata tables associated with the source object type areretrieved from the source enterprise content management system. Forexample, the cloning tool retrieves source single value tables ofmetadata and source repeat value tables of metadata for the dcm_docobject type from the source Documentum® system. The source metadatatables are stored as target metadata tables in the target enterprisecontent management system. In an embodiment, the cloning tool stores thesource single value tables of metadata and the source repeat valuetables of metadata for the dcm_doc object type in the target Documentum®system. The cloning tool directly extracts and loads data at thedatabase level, enabling the cloning of environments in days, ratherthan the weeks required by some prior art cloning tools.

Prior to describing the subject matter in detail, an exemplary hardwaredevice in which the subject matter may be implemented shall first bedescribed. Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that theelements illustrated in FIG. 1 may vary depending on the systemimplementation. With reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary system forimplementing the subject matter disclosed herein includes a hardwaredevice 100, including a processing unit 102, memory 104, storage 106,data entry module 108, display adapter 110, communication interface 112,and a bus 114 that couples elements 104-112 to the processing unit 102.

The bus 114 may comprise any type of bus architecture. Examples includea memory bus, a peripheral bus, a local bus, etc. The processing unit102 is an instruction execution machine, apparatus, or device and maycomprise a microprocessor, a digital signal processor, a graphicsprocessing unit, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), afield programmable gate array (FPGA), etc. The processing unit 102 maybe configured to execute program instructions stored in memory 104and/or storage 106 and/or received via data entry module 108.

The memory 104 may include read only memory (ROM) 116 and random accessmemory (RAM) 118. Memory 104 may be configured to store programinstructions and data during operation of device 100. In variousembodiments, memory 104 may include any of a variety of memorytechnologies such as static random access memory (SRAM) or dynamic RAM(DRAM), including variants such as dual data rate synchronous DRAM (DDRSDRAM), error correcting code synchronous DRAM (ECC SDRAM), or RAMBUSDRAM (RDRAM), for example. Memory 104 may also include nonvolatilememory technologies such as nonvolatile flash RAM (NVRAM) or ROM. Insome embodiments, it is contemplated that memory 104 may include acombination of technologies such as the foregoing, as well as othertechnologies not specifically mentioned. When the subject matter isimplemented in a computer system, a basic input/output system (BIOS)120, containing the basic routines that help to transfer informationbetween elements within the computer system, such as during start-up, isstored in ROM 116.

The storage 106 may include a flash memory data storage device forreading from and writing to flash memory, a hard disk drive for readingfrom and writing to a hard disk, a magnetic disk drive for reading fromor writing to a removable magnetic disk, and/or an optical disk drivefor reading from or writing to a removable optical disk such as a CDROM, DVD or other optical media. The drives and their associatedcomputer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules and other data for thehardware device 100.

It is noted that the methods described herein can be embodied inexecutable instructions stored in a computer readable medium for use byor in connection with an instruction execution machine, apparatus, ordevice, such as a computer-based or processor-containing machine,apparatus, or device. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the artthat for some embodiments, other types of computer readable media may beused which can store data that is accessible by a computer, such asmagnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital video disks, Bernoullicartridges, RAM, ROM, and the like may also be used in the exemplaryoperating environment. As used here, a “computer-readable medium” caninclude one or more of any suitable media for storing the executableinstructions of a computer program in one or more of an electronic,magnetic, optical, and electromagnetic format, such that the instructionexecution machine, system, apparatus, or device can read (or fetch) theinstructions from the computer readable medium and execute theinstructions for carrying out the described methods. A non-exhaustivelist of conventional exemplary computer readable medium includes: aportable computer diskette; a RAM; a ROM; an erasable programmable readonly memory (EPROM or flash memory); optical storage devices, includinga portable compact disc (CD), a portable digital video disc (DVD), ahigh definition DVD (HD-DVD™), a BLU-RAY disc; and the like.

A number of program modules may be stored on the storage 106, ROM 116 orRAM 118, including an operating system 122, one or more applicationsprograms 124, program data 126, and other program modules 128. A usermay enter commands and information into the hardware device 100 throughdata entry module 108. Data entry module 108 may include mechanisms suchas a keyboard, a touch screen, a pointing device, etc. Other externalinput devices (not shown) are connected to the hardware device 100 viaexternal data entry interface 130. By way of example and not limitation,external input devices may include a microphone, joystick, game pad,satellite dish, scanner, or the like. In some embodiments, externalinput devices may include video or audio input devices such as a videocamera, a still camera, etc. Data entry module 108 may be configured toreceive input from one or more users of device 100 and to deliver suchinput to processing unit 102 and/or memory 104 via bus 114.

A display 132 is also connected to the bus 114 via display adapter 110.Display 132 may be configured to display output of device 100 to one ormore users. In some embodiments, a given device such as a touch screen,for example, may function as both data entry module 108 and display 132.External display devices may also be connected to the bus 114 viaexternal display interface 134. Other peripheral output devices, notshown, such as speakers and printers, may be connected to the hardwaredevice 100.

The hardware device 100 may operate in a networked environment usinglogical connections to one or more remote nodes (not shown) viacommunication interface 112. The remote node may be another computer, aserver, a router, a peer device or other common network node, andtypically includes many or all of the elements described above relativeto the hardware device 100. The communication interface 112 mayinterface with a wireless network and/or a wired network. Examples ofwireless networks include, for example, a BLUETOOTH network, a wirelesspersonal area network, a wireless 802.11 local area network (LAN),and/or wireless telephony network (e.g., a cellular, PCS, or GSMnetwork). Examples of wired networks include, for example, a LAN, afiber optic network, a wired personal area network, a telephony network,and/or a wide area network (WAN). Such networking environments arecommonplace in intranets, the Internet, offices, enterprise-widecomputer networks and the like. In some embodiments, communicationinterface 112 may include logic configured to support direct memoryaccess (DMA) transfers between memory 104 and other devices.

In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to thehardware device 100, or portions thereof, may be stored in a remotestorage device, such as, for example, on a server. It will beappreciated that other hardware and/or software to establish acommunications link between the hardware device 100 and other devicesmay be used.

It should be understood that the arrangement of hardware device 100illustrated in FIG. 1 is but one possible implementation and that otherarrangements are possible. It should also be understood that the varioussystem components (and means) defined by the claims, described below,and illustrated in the various block diagrams represent logicalcomponents that are configured to perform the functionality describedherein. For example, one or more of these system components (and means)can be realized, in whole or in part, by at least some of the componentsillustrated in the arrangement of hardware device 100. In addition,while at least one of these components are implemented at leastpartially as an electronic hardware component, and therefore constitutesa machine, the other components may be implemented in software,hardware, or a combination of software and hardware. More particularly,at least one component defined by the claims is implemented at leastpartially as an electronic hardware component, such as an instructionexecution machine (e.g., a processor-based or processor-containingmachine) and/or as specialized circuits or circuitry (e.g., discretelogic gates interconnected to perform a specialized function), such asthose illustrated in FIG. 1. Other components may be implemented insoftware, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware. Moreover,some or all of these other components may be combined, some may beomitted altogether, and additional components can be added while stillachieving the functionality described herein. Thus, the subject matterdescribed herein can be embodied in many different variations, and allsuch variations are contemplated to be within the scope of what isclaimed.

In the description that follows, the subject matter will be describedwith reference to acts and symbolic representations of operations thatare performed by one or more devices, unless indicated otherwise. Assuch, it will be understood that such acts and operations, which are attimes referred to as being computer-executed, include the manipulationby the processing unit of data in a structured form. This manipulationtransforms the data or maintains it at locations in the memory system ofthe computer, which reconfigures or otherwise alters the operation ofthe device in a manner well understood by those skilled in the art. Thedata structures where data is maintained are physical locations of thememory that have particular properties defined by the format of thedata. However, while the subject matter is being described in theforegoing context, it is not meant to be limiting as those of skill inthe art will appreciate that various of the acts and operation describedhereinafter may also be implemented in hardware.

To facilitate an understanding of the subject matter described below,many aspects are described in terms of sequences of actions. At leastone of these aspects defined by the claims is performed by an electronichardware component. For example, it will be recognized that the variousactions can be performed by specialized circuits or circuitry, byprogram instructions being executed by one or more processors, or by acombination of both. The description herein of any sequence of actionsis not intended to imply that the specific order described forperforming that sequence must be followed. All methods described hereincan be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated hereinor otherwise clearly contradicted by context. In an embodiment, thecomputer system 100 includes one or more methods for cloning enterprisemanagement systems.

In the prior art, some cloning tools use an application programinterface to clone an enterprise content management system's objecttypes and metadata tables at a rate which may require weeks to completethe cloning process. Embodiments herein provide a cloning tool thatdirectly extracts and loads data at the database level, enabling thecloning of an enterprise content management system in days, rather thanthe weeks required by some prior art cloning tools.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a system that implements cloningenterprise management systems, under an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2,system 200 may illustrate a cloud computing environment in which data,applications, services, and other resources are stored and deliveredthrough shared data-centers and appear as a single point of access forthe users. The system 200 may also represent any other type ofdistributed computer network environment in which servers control thestorage and distribution of resources and services for different clientusers.

In an embodiment, the system 200 represents a cloud computing systemthat includes a client 202, and a source server 204, a cloning server206, and a target server 208 that are provided by a hosting company. Theclient 202 and the servers 204-208 communicate via a network 210. Thesource server 204 includes a source enterprise content management system212 associated with source content 214, the cloning server 206 includesa cloning tool 216, and the target server 208 includes a targetenterprise content management system 218 associated with target content220. Although the source content 214 is depicted as stored on the sourceserver 204 and the target content 220 is depicted as stored on thetarget server 208, the source content 214 and the target content 220 maybe stored on other servers that are associated with the servers 204 and208, respectively, but not depicted in FIG. 2. The client 202 and theservers 204-208 may each be substantially similar to the system 100depicted in FIG. 1.

The source enterprise content management system 212 includes a sourcedatabase management system 222, a source object type 224, sourcemetadata tables 226, and a source audit trail 228, all associated withthe source content 214. Similarly, the target enterprise contentmanagement system 218 includes a target database management system 230,a target object type 232, target metadata tables 234, and a target audittrail 236, all associated with the target content 220. The sourceenterprise content management system 212 may be referred to as thesource Documentum® system 212, and the target enterprise contentmanagement system 218 may be referred to as the target Documentum®system 218, each provided by EMC® Corporation. The source databasemanagement system 222 may be referred to as the source Oracle® database222, and the target database management system 230 may be referred to asthe target Oracle® database 230, each provided by Oracle® Corporation.While the examples described herein include the use of an Oracle®database, one skilled in the art would understand that other databases,such as SQL, could be used. The source object type 224 may be referredto as the dcm_doc object type 224, and the target object type 232 mayalso be referred to as the dcm_doc object type 232.

The source metadata tables 226 may be referred to as the source singlevalue tables of metadata and source repeat value tables of metadata 226,and the target metadata tables 234 may be referred to as the targetsingle value tables of metadata and the target repeat value tables ofmetadata 234. Although the metadata tables 226 and 234 may be describedas single and repeat value tables of metadata 226 and 234, the metadatatables 226 and 234 may include additional types of metadata tables usedby enterprise content management systems. Single value tables ofmetadata specify single values of metadata associated with thecorresponding content, such as the corresponding title and thecorresponding creation date for corresponding dcm_doc documents, andrepeat value tables of metadata specify repeat values of metadataassociated with the corresponding content, such as the correspondingmultiple authors and the corresponding multiple keywords for thecorresponding dcm_doc documents. Although FIG. 2 depicts only one sourceobject type 224, only one source audit trail 228, only one target objecttype 232, and only one target audit trail 236 for the purposes ofpresenting an extremely simplified example, the system 200 may includeany number of object types 224 and 232 and any number of audit trails228 and 236.

A cloning tool may create a target enterprise content management system.For example, a system user accesses a web based interface to the cloningtool 216 via the client 202 to create the target Documentum system 218.The cloning tool 216 creates the target enterprise content managementsystem 218 to have the same docbase identifier for the repository as thedocbase repository for the source enterprise content management system212 so that the object identifiers for the system's objects, which arebased on the first four digits of the docbase identifier, are retainedfor the cloning process. The cloning tool 216 may also validate that thenewly created target enterprise content management system 218 isoperating as designed, that networking is functioning, that ports areopen, and that firewalls are not blocking traffic.

A cloning tool executes a first remote procedure call to a sourcedatabase management system associated with a source enterprise contentmanagement system to retrieve a source object type from the sourceenterprise content management system. For example, the cloning tool 216executes Java® script to retrieve the dcm_doc object type 224, whichincludes schemas, metadata, and relationships, from the source Oracle®database 222 used by the source Documentum® system 212. The script canfilter object types or extract all objects as needed, including customobjects. When the script retrieves the object types, the scriptgenerates a second script, such as SQL commands, to subsequently storethe retrieved object types in a target environment, wherein the secondscript is based on the retrieved object types. Therefore, no databaseadministrator is required to generate custom code to store custom objecttypes. In contrast to prior art cloning tools that use an inefficientapplication program interface to retrieve object types, which involvesthe high costs of acquiring sessions to indirectly interact with adatabase that is several layers below the application program interface,the cloning tool 216 quickly executes efficient remote procedure callsto directly interact with a database at the level of the database. Thecloning tool 216 has the memory, capacity, and capability to directlyinteract with an Oracle® database, a SQL® database, an IBM® DB2®database, or any other type of relational database. Although thisexample uses only a single dcm_doc object type to illustrate the cloningof an enterprise content management system, enterprise contentmanagement systems may have hundreds of different object types.

A cloning tool executes a second remote procedure call to a targetdatabase management system associated with a target enterprise contentmanagement system to create a target object type in the targetenterprise content management system, wherein the target object type isbased on a source object type. For example, the cloning tool 216executes SQL commands to store the dcm_doc object type 224 as thedcm_doc object type 232 in the target Oracle® database 230 to be used bythe target Documentum® system 218. The commands to store an object typein a target environment are automatically generated when a script wasexecuted to retrieve the object type from a source environment, suchthat no database administrator is required to generate custom code tostore custom object types. In contrast to prior art cloning tools thatuse an inefficient application program interface to create object types,which involves the high costs of acquiring sessions to indirectlyinteract with a database that is several layers below the applicationprogram interface, the cloning tool 216 quickly executes efficientremote procedure calls to directly interact with a database at the levelof the database.

A cloning tool retrieves source metadata tables associated with a sourceobject type from a source enterprise content management system. Forexample, the cloning tool 216 retrieves source single value tables ofmetadata and source repeat value tables of metadata 226 for the dcm_docobject type 224 from the source Documentum® system 212. In contrast toprior art cloning tools that execute on a source system and/or a targetsystem to inefficiently retrieve metadata tables in small batches, suchas in spreadsheet files, the cloning tool 216 quickly and efficientlyretrieves metadata tables, which enables significant amounts of metadatato be migrated between enterprise content management systems in a verysmall amount of time.

A cloning tool stores source metadata tables as target metadata tablesin a target enterprise content management system. For example, thecloning tool 216 stores the source single value tables of metadata andthe source repeat value tables of metadata 226 as the target singlevalue tables of metadata and the target repeat value tables of metadata234 for the dcm_doc object type 232 in the target Documentum® system218. The cloning tool 216 may also update the indexing in the targetenvironment and execute re-platform scripts to change variousattributes, such as the host name and folder paths. The cloning tool 216may also start the repository in the target environment, execute teststo detect any errors, such as orphan files, and run a consistencychecker to verify the state of the docbase. In contrast to prior artcloning tools that execute on a source system and/or a target system toinefficiently store metadata tables in small batches, such as inspreadsheet files, the cloning tool 216 quickly and efficiently storesmetadata tables, which enables significant amounts of metadata to bemigrated between enterprise content management systems in a very smallamount of time. Furthermore, multiple instances of the cloning tool 216may execute concurrently to expedite the migration of object types andmetadata tables between enterprise content management systems.

A cloning tool may retrieve an audit trail from a source enterprisecontent management system, and store the audit trail in a targetenterprise content management system. For example, the cloning tool 216retrieves the source audit trail 228 from the source Documentum® system212, and stores the source audit trail 228 as the target audit trail 236in the target Documentum® system 218. Migrating the audit trail may bedeferred to a later time after the cloning process is complete to reducethe overall downtime for an enterprise content management system.

Now that all of the metadata tables have been migrated, the content maybe migrated. A cloning tool may retrieve source content associated witha source enterprise content management system, and store the sourcecontent as target content associated with a target enterprise contentmanagement system. For example, the cloning tool 216 retrieves thesource content 214 associated with the source Documentum® system 212,and stores the source content 214 as the target content 220 associatedwith the target Documentum® system 218. Migrating content may beoptional, particularly if the content is already stored in an off-siteor on-demand filestore. In addition to content, the cloning tool 216 mayalso migrate operating systems, configuration files, user interfacecomponents, web applications, workflows, object lifecycles, and otherinformation related to the operation of an enterprise content managementsystem. The cloning tool 216 may also check the filestores and comparethe size of the target content 220 against the source content 214.

A cloning tool may upgrade a target enterprise content management systemto a next generation enterprise content management system. For example,the cloning tool 216 upgrades the target Documentum® system 218 fromDocumentum® version 5.3 to the next generation Documentum® version 6.7.The cloning tool 216 directly extracts and loads data at the databaselevel, enabling the cloning of environments in days, rather than theweeks required by some prior art cloning tools.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart that illustrates a method of cloning enterprisecontent management systems. Flowchart 300 illustrates method actsillustrated as flowchart blocks for certain steps involved in and/orbetween the client 202 and/or the servers 204-208 of FIG. 2.

A target enterprise content management system is optionally created, act302. For example, the cloning tool 216 creates the target Documentum®system 218.

A first remote procedure call is executed to a source databasemanagement system associated with a source enterprise content managementsystem to retrieve a source object type from the source enterprisecontent management system, act 304. For example, the cloning tool 216executes Java® script to retrieve the dcm_doc object type 224 from thesource Oracle® database 222 used by the source Documentum® system 212.

A second remote procedure call is executed to a target databasemanagement system associated with a target enterprise content managementsystem to create a target object type in a target enterprise contentmanagement system, wherein the target object type is based on a sourceobject type, act 306. For example, the cloning tool 216 executes SQLcommands to store the dcm_doc object type 224 as the dcm_doc object type232 in the target Oracle® database 230 to be used by the targetDocumentum® system 218.

Source metadata tables associated with a source object type areretrieved from a source enterprise content management system, act 308.For example, the cloning tool 216 retrieves the source single valuetables of metadata and source repeat value tables of metadata 226 forthe dcm_doc object type 224 from the source Documentum® system 212.

Source metadata tables are stored as target metadata tables in a targetenterprise content management system, act 310. For example, the cloningtool 216 stores the source single value tables of metadata and thesource repeat value tables of metadata 226 as the target single valuetables of metadata and the target repeat value tables of metadata 234for the dcm_doc object type 232 in the target Documentum® system 218.

An audit trail is optionally retrieved from a source enterprise contentmanagement system, and stored in a target enterprise content managementsystem, act 312. For example, the cloning tool 216 retrieves the sourceaudit trail 228 from the source Documentum® system 212, and stores thesource audit trail 228 as the target audit trail 236 in the targetDocumentum® system 218.

Source content associated with a source enterprise content managementsystem is optionally retrieved and stored as target content associatedwith a target enterprise content management system, act 314. Forexample, the cloning tool 216 retrieves the source content 214associated with the source Documentum® system 212, and stores the sourcecontent 214 as the target content 220 associated with the targetDocumentum® system 218.

A target enterprise content management system is optionally upgraded toa next generation enterprise content management system, act 316. Forexample, the cloning tool 216 upgrades the target Documentum® system218. from Documentum® version 5.3 to the next generation Documentum®version 6.7.

Although FIG. 3 depicts the acts 302-316 occurring in a specific order,the acts 302-316 may occur in another order. Embodiments herein enablecloning enterprise content management systems. The cloning tool 216directly extracts and loads data at the database level, enabling thecloning of enterprises in days, rather than the weeks required by someprior art migration tools.

The use of the terms “a” and “an” and “the” and similar referents in thecontext of describing the subject matter (particularly in the context ofthe following claims) are to be construed to cover both the singular andthe plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted bycontext. Recitation of ranges of values herein are merely intended toserve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separatevalue falling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein, andeach separate value is incorporated into the specification as if it wereindividually recited herein. Furthermore, the foregoing description isfor the purpose of illustration only, and not for the purpose oflimitation, as the scope of protection sought is defined by the claimsas set forth hereinafter together with any equivalents thereof entitledto. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “suchas”) provided herein, is intended merely to better illustrate thesubject matter and does not pose a limitation on the scope of thesubject matter unless otherwise claimed. The use of the term “based on”and other like phrases indicating a condition for bringing about aresult, both in the claims and in the written description, is notintended to foreclose any other conditions that bring about that result.No language in the specification should be construed as indicating anynon-claimed element as essential to the practice of the invention asclaimed.

Preferred embodiments are described herein, including the best modeknown to the inventor for carrying out the claimed subject matter. Ofcourse, variations of those preferred embodiments will become apparentto those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the foregoingdescription. The inventor expects skilled artisans to employ suchvariations as appropriate, and the inventor intends for the claimedsubject matter to be practiced otherwise than as specifically describedherein. Accordingly, this claimed subject matter includes allmodifications and equivalents of the subject matter recited in theclaims appended hereto as permitted by applicable law. Moreover, anycombination of the above-described elements in all possible variationsthereof is encompassed unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwiseclearly contradicted by context.

What is claimed is:
 1. A cloning system comprising: a communicationsinterface; a computer readable medium; a processor coupled to thecommunications interface and the computer readable medium, the computerreadable medium storing computer-readable program code executable by theprocessor to: communicate over a network with a source server thatcomprises a source enterprise content management system configured tomanage source content associated with the source enterprise contentmanagement system, the source enterprise content management systemcomprising a source database having a source database management system,a source object type, and a source metadata table associated with thesource object type; communicate over the network with a target server tocreate a target enterprise content management system that comprises atarget database having a target database management system; execute afirst remote procedure call to the source database management system todirectly interact with the source database at a level of the sourcedatabase to retrieve the source object type from the source enterprisecontent management system; execute a second remote procedure call to thetarget database management system to directly interact with the targetdatabase at a level of the target database to create a target objecttype in the target enterprise content management system, wherein thetarget object type is based on the source object type; communicate overthe network with the source server to retrieve the source metadata tablefrom the source enterprise content management system; and communicateover the network with the target server to store the source metadatatable in the target enterprise content management system as a targetmetadata table associated with the target object type.
 2. The cloningsystem of claim 1, wherein the source enterprise content managementsystem comprises a source repository having a repository identificationand storing source objects, wherein each source object has an objectidentification at least partially based on the repositoryidentification, and wherein the computer-readable program code isexecutable to: communicate over the network with the target server tocreate the target enterprise content management system to have a targetrepository with the same repository identification as the sourcerepository; and communicate over the network with source server andtarget server to clone the source objects to the target repository astarget objects with each target object retaining the objectidentification of the source object from which the target object wascloned.
 3. The cloning system of claim 1, wherein the source object typeincludes a schema, metadata and a relationship.
 4. The cloning system ofclaim 1, wherein the source metadata table comprises a source singlevalue table and a source repeat value table and wherein the targetmetadata table comprises a target single value table and a target repeatvalue table.
 5. The cloning system of claim 1, wherein thecomputer-readable program code is executable to: execute a first scriptto: execute the first remote procedure call; generate a second scriptbased on the source object type, the second script executable to storethe source object type in the target enterprise content managementsystem as the target object type; and execute the second script toexecute the second remote procedure call.
 6. The cloning system of claim1, wherein the computer-readable program code is executable tocommunicate over the network to retrieve a source audit trail from thesource enterprise content management system and store the source audittrail as a target audit trail in the target enterprise contentmanagement system.
 7. The cloning system of claim 1, wherein thecomputer-readable program code is executable to communicate over thenetwork to retrieve the source content associated with the sourceenterprise content management system and store the source content astarget content associated with the target enterprise content managementsystem.
 8. The cloning system of claim 1, wherein the computer-readableprogram code is executable to communicate over the network with thetarget server to upgrade the target enterprise content management systemto a next generation.
 9. The cloning system of claim 1, furthercomprising: the source server; and the target server.
 10. The cloningsystem of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable program code isexecutable to: communicate with the target server over the network toupdate an index of the target enterprise content management system. 11.A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readablemedium storing computer-readable program code executable to: communicateover a network with a source server that comprises a source enterprisecontent management system configured to manage source content associatedwith the source enterprise content management system, the sourceenterprise content management system comprising a source database havinga source database management system, a source object type, and a sourcemetadata table associated with the source object type; communicate overthe network with a target server to create a target enterprise contentmanagement system that comprises a target database having a targetdatabase management system; execute a first remote procedure call to thesource database management system to directly interact with the sourcedatabase at a level of the source database to retrieve the source objecttype from the source enterprise content management system; execute asecond remote procedure call to the target database management system todirectly interact with the target database at a level of the targetdatabase to create a target object type in the target enterprise contentmanagement system, wherein the target object type is based on the sourceobject type; communicate over the network with the source server toretrieve the source metadata table from the source enterprise contentmanagement system; and communicate over the network with the targetserver to store the source metadata table in the target enterprisecontent management system as a target metadata table associated with thetarget object type.
 12. The computer program product of claim 11,wherein the source enterprise content management system comprises asource repository having a repository identification and storing sourceobjects, wherein each source object has an object identification atleast partially based on the repository identification, and wherein thecomputer-readable program code is executable to: communicate over thenetwork with the target server to create the target enterprise contentmanagement system to have a target repository with the same repositoryidentification as the source repository; and communicate over thenetwork with source server and target server to clone the source objectsto the target repository as target objects with each target objectretaining the object identification of the source object from which thetarget object was cloned.
 13. The computer program product of claim 11,wherein the source object type includes a schema, metadata and arelationship.
 14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein thesource metadata table comprises a source single value table and a sourcerepeat value table and wherein the target metadata table comprises atarget single value table and a target repeat value table.
 15. Thecomputer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer-readableprogram code is executable to: execute a first script to: execute thefirst remote procedure call; generate a second script based on thesource object type, the second script executable to store the sourceobject type in the target enterprise content management system as thetarget object type; and execute the second script to execute the secondremote procedure call.
 16. The computer program product of claim 11,wherein the computer-readable program code is executable to communicateover the network to retrieve a source audit trail from the sourceenterprise content management system and store the source audit trail asa target audit trail in the target enterprise content management system17. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein thecomputer-readable program code is executable to communicate over thenetwork to retrieve the source content associated with the sourceenterprise content management system and store the source content astarget content associated with the target enterprise content managementsystem.
 18. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein thecomputer-readable program code is executable to communicate over thenetwork with the target server to upgrade the target enterprise contentmanagement system to a next generation.
 19. The computer program productof claim 11, wherein the computer-readable program code is executableto: communicate with the target server over the network to update anindex of the target enterprise content management system.